Changing gerrymandered districts in South Dakota won't fix red state failure

There is some discussion in my home state of South Dakota about whether the earth hater party's political bludgeon could be cut down to size if there were some mechanism in place to redraw districts to make voting more equitable for Democrats.

The premise would work like this: instead of having the Legislature (that is, the party in control of the Legislature) in charge of redistricting every 10 years, an independent commission would instead be given the task. The nine-person commission would include no more than three members apiece from both the Democrat[ic] and Republican parties. By doing this, the redistricting process would, in theory, be done in nonpartisan fashion, with the shadow of possible political opportunism removed from the process. [editorial, Yankton Press & Dakotan]

South Dakota, Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida are the most earth hater-tilted states.

This is at least as much about the flight of young people and Democrats from South Dakota than anything else. Inbound white retirees from somewhere else tapping into the state's culture of federal dependence have simply displaced progressive thought leaders so there is little mystery about that.

How are 64+ county seats and their bureaucracies either conservative or sustainable? They're not; but, it is the way Republican cronyism and patronage built barricades to democracy by providing benefits of the public dole to those who say they deplore big gubmint in a state that hates poor people.

Voter turnout is dismal in Indian Country mostly because tribal nations endure hopelessness as they compete with the stingy red moocher state government for resources.

The Wanblee district should be in Oglala Lakota County then Jackson should be rolled into Haakon, Jones and Lyman Counties. Stanley and Sully should be rolled into Hughes. Give Indian Country some clout by making Oglala Lakota, Mellette, Bennett, Todd, Gregory and Tripp one county. Dewey, Ziebach and Corson should be a county. Butte, Harding and Perkins should be one. Lawrence and Meade should be one, Fall River and Custer should be one.

Fine. Stanley might be happier being in with Lyman and the others. Combine Marshall and Brown Counties, too. East River is a dead zone: smarter people than i can figure out how to sort out that mess. Everything east of the Missouri River is Cleveland anyway.

Let’s face it: the only worse place than Pierre or Brookings to live is DC.

It's obvious this phenomenon is no accident: it has been manufactured to make the state a corporatist tax haven for an exclusive set of Republicans while over $3 trillion languishes in South Dakota banks.

The best thing to happen to my home state is for it to be covered in ten feet of ash from the Yellowstone supervolcano.